Halflings (Warhammer)

Remember back when Warhammer Fantasy was about combining history with criticism of the modern world and comedy while adding stuff "inspired" by the young and evolving modern fantasy genre alongside Tolkien, the works of Michael Moorcock, Glorantha, and Dungeons & Dragons all for the purpose of selling models of the aforementioned IPs? Don't worry, Games Workshop doesn't either.

Halflings are a remnant of the older Warhammer, mostly forgotten aside from those moments that modern writers want a touch of levity. They've appeared off and on throughout the years, but never once in the starring role of anything. They were more or less removed from the game September 9th 2006 with the release of 7th edition by virtue of not having rules, officially removed in 8e by virtue of not existing in any rulebook and the Dogs of War army no longer being supported by omission in the core rule army list. The last of them perished in End Times, and as one would predict they were not brought back for Age Of Sigmar nor in any sort of demand by the fans of that game.

For their Warhammer 40000 equivalent, see Ratling.

Origins & History

For a summary, "Tolkien Hobbits but black comedy in the Warhammer universe, with surprisingly few changes other than making some gentle fun of Hobbits".

In the prehistory of the world the Old Ones were trying to create a race that they could use as their army of slaves against Chaos because it would eventually invade, not realizing that siphoning off magic from Chaos was making it a self-fulfilling prophesy. First they created the Elves in a special magical continent called Ulthuan, who were effective Chaos fighters but lacked the reproductive ability to keep a long war going and where easy for Chaos to manipulate. The Dwarfs were created in the mountains of the Old World as everything good about the Elves but instead of channeling the power of Chaos into magic and sending it right back at them, the Dwarfs were resistant to magic and even nullified it. But the Dwarfs were also slow to reproduce, and although designed to be so stubborn they were hard to manipulate they became too uncompromising to react to the changing tactics of Chaos. Humans were next, which were created in Nehekhara and given they were worse than Elves and Dwarfs in every single way other than reproducing quickly it can be assumed they were just a text batch. Halflings were the next creation, set just northwest of the Dwarfs in the Old World in a highly fertile and perfect land full of valleys and rivers which would be called the Mootland. This is only really meta-knowledge however. While the Slann of the Lizardmen may know the true origins of the Halflings given they likely were participants in their creation, nothing regarding the Halflings has been mentioned in any of their plans. Dwarfs don't really know where they came from, only recording that humans and Halflings have been together as long as they've been paying attention to races other than Elves and that it took some time for them to realize they weren't just human children. Elves seem to have no real interactions with Halflings. Humans believe they're a failed creation of one of their gods, either as an experiment in Chaos-fighting by Verana or as a joke by Ranald. After their creation the Old Ones were apparently pleased, given they immediately set about creating Ogres which are pretty much just giant Halflings; however they were too late, the Warp Gates exploded and Chaos invaded the world before they were finished. As a result the Ogres were physically finished, but their environment couldn't support them unlike the Moot could the Halflings, and their culture was entirely unfinished which resulted in a race of brutes with very little value for intelligence.

Elves have the most complete record of the world, and between their creation and the invasion of Chaos was a golden age that no records survive from. Since all the (intended, natural) races of the world were finished (barring Ogres which simply exist) by the invasion it can be determined that approximately 5500 years passed before the recorded history of the Halflings began. The Empire AKA Warhammer Germans had existed for about 1000 years, having absorbed the territory of the Halflings at some point, when Emperor Ludwig II Hohenbach AKA "Ludwig The Fat" granted them autonomy from the rest of the Empire. Previously the Moot had been split between the provinces of Averland and Stirland as their primary source of food farmable land, but the combination of insults from the daughters of the Counts of those provinces and an especially delicious meal served by a Halfling chef had won the favor of the Emperor. Along with having a vote in the election of new Emperors they became important to all provinces in the Empire for the massive supplies of food which are sent out, supporting the rest of the nation. The Moot has no true Elector Count due to not having a Runesword, and instead the Elder Of The Moot is their supreme leader so much as they have one. The Elder vote is known for being obtained primarily through personal bribery of food and drink as well as promised protection for the Moot, and in the events of civil wars and election crises the Moot is generally left untouched. The Elder is the keeper of the Haffenlyver, a record of the geneology of the Halflings which was first recorded upon the independence of the Moot.

Aside from that, Halfling history is simple. They grow food and send it to the Empire, they play host to traveling Dwarfs, sometimes they are invaded by greenskins or the undead although Chaos invasions are generally unknown.

In the End Times the forces of the Moot were kept at home to defend, with only the Fighting Cocks (see below) leaving to defend their human allies albeit mostly by fighting on their way home to the Moot. They battled Skaven the entire way before finally disappearing in Averheim at some point between the siege of the city by Skaven and Tzeentchian forces and its destruction by Archaos The Fuckwad. Whether this was a cheeky reference to Bilbo's lack of participation and invisibility during the events of the final battle of Tolkien's The Hobbit or just the writers forgetting they existed is open to interpretation, but the former is probably pretty unlikely (but let's pretend it was anyway, since it makes it a bit less painful). The Halflings themselves were destroyed by an infinite horde of pure darkness that came when the Warp consumed the world, fleeing to Sylvania and finding protectoin alongside the last of the civilians of mankind among the undead forces lead by Queen Neferata and High Queen Khalida.

Halflings weren't involved in Storm Of Chaos aside from their participation in Empire armies.

In an alternate universe of Total War: WARHAMMER the Halflings don't participate in any way beyond some scripted events but multiple factions can find them as chef companions. The fate of the Moot is dependent on what faction you play as, but generally speaking they'll probably be taken over by Vampires at some point before being destroyed by greenskins or liberated by the Empire or Dwarfs.

Notable Characters

Unfortunately, the Halflings don't have many characters other than Lumpin.

• Hisme Strakherz

The current Elder. Although he only supported Karl Franz due to extensive bribery in the form of beer and oatcakes he also secured a lucrative trade deal, and has been more active in sending Halfling forces to defend the Empire than previous Elders.